Richie's Picks: COLD HANDS, WARM HEART by Jill Wolfson, Henry Holt, April
2009, 256p., ISBN: 978-0-8050-8282-1, (12 & up: language)
"And I'm only alive here today and talking to you here today because a young
man said to his mom, if anything ever happens to me, I want to be an organ
donor."
-- Phil Lesh, whose liver, ravaged by Hepatitis C, was replaced with a
transplant in 1998. (Anyone who has attended a Phil and Friends concert has heard
his "Donor Rap.")
"People struggle, people fight
For the simple pleasures in their life
But trouble comes from everywhere
It's a little more than you can bear
I know that it will hurt
I know that it will break your heart"
-- Natalie Merchant
COLD HANDS, WARM HEART features two teenage girls living just miles apart,
who will never meet, but who will share a heart.
The donor:
"And then.
"Afterward, after it was all over, one of Amanda's teammates swore that this
was when she heard a gasp.
"'Like someone seeing a ghost,' she said.
"But the head judge, who was well trained to pick up on anything out of the
ordinary -- a toe not pointed, a back with a few degrees too much arch --
testified she had noticed only the very slightest overrotation. 'It was a
beautiful routine. Until she...the girl...Amanda...until she just lost it...
"Her body hurled forward, then dropped. No one could agree on what hit
where first, only that there was a clink of bone hitting metal, then a sickening
thud when Amanda landed face down on the floor. The head judge jumped from
her chair, hand pressed over mouth. People in the stands stopped chewing
their nachos."
The recipient:
"And then without any ceremony, as if it were the most common thing in the
world, she placed my own heart in the palms of my own hands.
"There.
"I was holding it.
"It wasn't slimy, more the texture of a rubber ball.
"I waited for something. For what?
"I expected to feel something, a sensation related to electricity. A shock,
a twitch, a vibration. But there was just this weight in my hands, with no
more connection to me than baby teeth after they had fallen out."
Amanda, the uber-competitive, fourteen-year-old gymnast. That is as much as
most of her schoolmates likely know about her before -- or after -- her
accident and untimely death. Even her big brother Tyler -- who was so close to
her when they were both little kids -- really does not know who she has been
as a teenager.
"Every time I see you lookin' my way
Baby, baby, can't you hear my heartbeat?"
-- Herman's Hermits
Fifteen-year-old Dani the sick girl is moved to the top of the list for
recipients when there is nothing else that can be done with the swollen,
inefficient heart that has been repeatedly worked on since her birth. There comes
a
point when the worst-case scenario is that she has two weeks to live. Does a
fifteen-year-old girl with possibly two weeks to live think about the
meaning of life and the possibilities of an afterlife? Not if her hormones have
anything to say about it! The guy in the next room awaiting a liver may have
yellow skin to go with his green hair, but there is something about him...
Milo, that green-haired teen awaiting a liver, already has had one liver
transplant. Is it reasonable or a waste of a precious, life-saving gift to want
to behave (or misbehave) like a normal teenager?
"Remember to let her into your heart"
-- Lennon/McCartney
I really like how COLD HANDS, WARM HEART gets beyond the medical drama. It
probes the feelings of Amanda's estranged parents who -- in the midst of the
most horrible thing that has ever happened to them -- must come together to
decide whether to permit the donation of their brain-dead daughter's organs.
It probes the feelings of Amanda's big brother who -- living the life of the
typical American teen -- had really lost touch with the person living just
footsteps away, the sister who had once idolized him. He is the one who ends
up handling correspondence from the grateful organ recipients at the same
time that he is finding out who Amanda really was. And the book examines the
question that Dani, other characters, (and certainly some readers) have: With
all of the emotional stuff that we attribute to "the heart," is there a piece
of Amanda that lives on in Dani that she should be able to feel?
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks _http://richiespicks.com_ (http://richiespicks.com/)
Moderator, _http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/_
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/)
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
_http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks_ (http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks)
**************Eat Great & Lose Weight FASTER! Start the South Beach Diet
Online FREE!
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221394870x1201432948/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B213623126%3B35100424%3Bk)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings
by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book.
To change your LM_NET status, you send a message to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER:
1) SIGNOFF LM_NET
2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL
4) SET LM_NET DIGEST
* LM_NET Help & Information: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/
* LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
* EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/join.html
* LM_NET Supporters: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/category/links/el-announce/
--------------------------------------------------------------------
LM_NET
Mailing List Home